Bad to the last drop: EPA cuts would put water quality at risk

In a state where less than 1 percent of the surface area is covered by water, water is precious — like silver and gold.

No one in Nevada takes water for granted. We turn our lawns into xeriscapes, and our famed fountains on the Strip spout reclaimed and recycled water. We worry about the level of Lake Tahoe, and we build bigger water supply pipelines deep below the shrinking surface of Lake Mead.

In a state where less than 1 percent of the surface area is covered by water, water is precious — like silver and gold.

Yet even as Nevadans focus on the quantity of water in our state, the quality of our water is threatened. We need all the clean water we can get for drinking, fishing, farming and ranching, even swimming and diving.

For years, our struggle to provide safe drinking water has been supported by a partnership with the federal government. But unless Congress acts quickly, that help may be sharply cut back, or in some cases completely wiped out.

Under President Donald Trump’s proposal to slash funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by 31 percent, some vital EPA programs would be eliminated entirely. Let states pay for it, the president says. But that’s just not feasible in a state like ours where the federal government’s share of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection’s budget has been more than 35 percent — and the amount of funding that comes from Nevada’s general tax fund is zero. Yes, zero.

I know from trying to keep the Clark County budget in balance — we can’t do it alone.

What’s at risk? Plenty.

Over the last five years, Nevada has received more than $83 million in EPA grants to protect the state’s environment and economy. Additional EPA dollars have gone straight to local, tribal and regional projects.

That includes the $1.3 million to help the Nevada Tahoe Conservation District and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency meet Clean Water Act requirements to keep drinking water safe. Another example: more than $2.8 million to the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California to protect water quality and address lurking underground toxic hazards.

The Trump administration also would eliminate a major water pollution program that provided Nevada with $7.8 million over the last five years and helped control pollutants carried by rainfall runoff into the state’s drinking water, rivers and lakes.

These EPA grants have helped Nevadans fight real threats to the health of their drinking water. In 2002, for instance, water testing revealed potentially harmful levels of lead and sediments in the Las Vegas wash, which carries water from the 1,600-square-mile Las Vegas Valley into Lake Mead, which supplies drinking water for millions. Rising population and land development had led to an increase in hard surfaces like parking lots and rooftops that in turn caused higher levels of rainwater runoff. With the backing of EPA grants, state officials and my colleagues around the state launched major efforts to address water quality through rebuilding stream banks, restoring vegetation and wildlife habitat and removing invasive plant species.

The president’s budget would wipe that assistance out — completely.

The EPA also provides water pollution control grants to help us deal with contaminated water. The Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, along with several tribal governments in the state, received more than $9 million in such grants from 2012 to 2016.

The Trump administration budget would cut this funding by 30 percent.

Also slashed by 30 percet would be EPA grants thta helped public water systems in Nevada to the tune of $4 million 2012 to 2016.

And not just water programs are at risk: Clark County has received $500,000 in the last half-decade to clean up and turn hazardous “brownfield sites” into productive job sites, but that kind of aid also would be cut along with funds for monitoring and warning millions here when our geography trips up our air quality.

But there’s no getting around the risk to our clean water. Water agencies throughout the state, like the Clark County Water Rehabilitation District and the Southern Nevada Water Authority, work miracles every day. They deserve all our support. Every drop of it. They shouldn’t have to do their essential work with less.

No one who lives in a desert oasis like we do can ever take water for granted. We need a strong partner at our side. Cutbacks being thrown around in Washington would reverse decades of progress here.

Nevada needs a fully funded EPA. We shouldn’t have to go it alone.

Clark County Commission Vice Chair Chris Giunchigliani has lived in Clark County for more than 37 years. A former Nevada Assembly member, she is a member of numerous boards, committees and organizations.